Hi, everybody, I've got a question and a problem I thought some of you music gurus may be able to help me out with.

I've been collecting music for years, and for years I've been buying cds, ripping them to my computer and giving them away (because I hate keeping track of CDs).

Well, now I have about 22,000+ songs, over 100gigs of music. And, as with all increasingly complex forms of organization, my previous organization system is breaking down. It's not 'robust' enough any more to handle the collection.

So I want to reorganize (yeah, I get flash backs of Hornby's High Fidelity: "Chronological? Woah.") and am trying to figure out the best way to do it.

So I thought I'd see how other people organized their collections. Right now the system I'm leaning towards is:

Decade->Genre->A-Z->Artist->Album->Song

But of course that has its own share of problems I haven't figured out. Do bands get placed in the decade they started in, or the decade they finished in? What about if they released their first album in '79, and then five more in the 80's?

So, what works for you?

Like you, I have gone through numerous systems of organization, and none of them have been perfect. I used to do genre, and then within genre, alphabetical. I've found that with a large volume, the simpler the better. Now the only genres I keep separate are classical and movie soundtracks. Everything else is alphabetical. Within a particular artist/band, I don't worry about the order of release unless they have a lot of albums, then I'll still go alphabetically. I don't get so detailed as to worry about songs.

I differ in that my organization is with the physical discs, not the computer files. I could never be satisifed having something only on my computer or MP3 player.

My CDs and albums are organized strictly alphabetical, with sections for soundtracks, tributes, various artist compilations, and more after the "Z"'s. Subdividing past alphabetical seems, to me, to be a waste of energy. Is Death Cab for Cutie indie? Alternative? 90's? 2000's? Too much hassle. Alphabetical will always allow me to find what I want, fast.

My stuff is all over the place, leading to endless now where did I put? internal monologues. But just about everything is on the computer and/or mp3 player too, so all is invariably well. This post of mine goes out to all the insomniacs out there. Read it with some milk and cookies and soft lighting, and you'll be away with the fairies before you can say "liquid morphine".
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz..........

WTF is organized music? I've moved twice in the last three years (although never of my own choosing), and like pE, I have no computer organization. Unlike him, I probably have about 20 songs total on my computer. But, by some miracle, I can still find all of my shit!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mark f,

I'm insane. I organize and remember my CDs by favorite to least favorite. Now I don't go in exact order, but I have deliberately separated my music in 7 categories, from absolutely favorite to absolutely shit (I haven't gotten rid of 1 cd, no matter how horrible). And like PE, I'm totally old school, in that all my music is in CD form, and not digital download. I can always remember where a certain CD is, based on my "general" categorization.

My CDs are alphabetical by artist, and chronological by release date within that artist. It seems like the most logical way to do it. I agree with PE that arranging by genre is too subjective.

I use iTunes on the computer and my preferences are set to copy any music file I add to my library into the iTunes music folder, which is automatically organized alphabetically by artist with folders for each album also. If you have a song on your playlist and you need to locate the file, you can by clicking on the song and choosing "show song file" from the file menu. I also back up the CDs I sell on CD-Rs in case my computer dies for some reason.

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My CDs are alphabetical by artist, and chronological by release date within that artist. It seems like the most logical way to do it.

I agree completely. I also back up lots of my CDs with CD-Rs, including ones that I've sold and ones that are rare so that I don't have to be concerned with damaging the CD or artwork to something that was only pressed in 100 copies.

I don't have enough CDs yet to have to worry too much about organization, but when it gets large enough I'll probably handle them like my mp3s. I organize it all in one giant folder, with subfolders for each artist, and then another level of subfolders for each artists' albums. I find it much easier then getting into things like decade or genre because it's so easy to forget where you put things and difficult to decide which genre a particular album belongs in.

With CDs I'll probably do it alphabetically by artist, and then for each artist alphabetically (or maybe chronologically) by album.

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Originally posted by SDF:
My CDs are alphabetical by artist, and chronological by release date within that artist. It seems like the most logical way to do it. I agree with PE that arranging by genre is too subjective.

Ah...I neglected to mention that, within the alphabet, I also go by (original) release date. A reissue of an older record slots in on the initial release date, not the re-release date.

Lord have mercy Eric. Have you seen High Fidelity?...

I've got a large, diverse collection spread over many formats (vinyl, digital, CD, cassette. No reel-to-reels, though don't put it past me if the chance came up) but since I moved and have recently combined collections with my betrothed, things are sort of in a "where they fell" order at the moment.

Digital (by which I mean "stuff on my computer" rather than "non-analog") filing is a little besides the point since I use iTunes and you can basically order things by whatever principles you choose (transfering your music to an iTunes program might be a good idea, if it is possible in your situation. You can organize large amounts of music by a wide range of catagories, even "beats per minute" if you're down with that).

As for the general discussion of what filing system works best, I think it depends on size and eclecticism. For my relativly small vinyl collection, I tend to arrange things by genre or mood, then by artist. Since I have a wide collection of artist and styles spread over a limited number of albums, I find this works best for me. I realize that genre is subjective, but this is a personal music collection, not a public library. You should arrange it by whatever means feels best to you.

For my larger CD collection, I tend to use something more practical. Alphabetical by artist, then by album release date. Simple, effective and with very little gray area. If I were to arrange by genre (which if you are dealing with a very, very large collection, say 3,000 albums or more, would be more convenient) I would use broad classifications such as "rock" or "jazz." Such broad definitions limit the amount of messy crossovers, which can then be dealt with by personal preferance or just on an album by album basis.

I keep no music stuff on my computer, I don't keep track of any albums on my computer either. My albums, cd and vinyl, are arranged alphabetical and then chronological, with various artist comps and soundtracks seperate (except for LPs, V/A's and sountracks are mixed in). I have 2 hand written lists of albums, one in somewhat chronological order and one in a only-crazed-can-sort-it-out alphabetical order. The biggest mess is trying to organize and keep track of what songs are on the soundtracks & v/a comps, jeeze, I need to hire a secretary to keep track of that, say maybe, in my dreams, Jennifer Connelly or Rachel McAdams?

A couple of you have advocated iTunes, and then stated that you organize by artist alphabetically followed by chronological release date for each artist. I've found the inability to do this in iTunes to be the most frustrating thing about it. I always organized my cd's that way but since I've ripped all of my music into iTunes, I'm forced to look at each artist's albums alphabetically. What am I missing?

Well, I'm convinced. I'll throw out genre, and do it decade->alphabetically.

The only reason I'll keep decade is I still resist having Muddy Waters besides My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult or My Morning Jacket.

Seems sacreligious somehow... you know, in a music sort of way.

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Originally posted by musicfanatic:
I'm insane. I organize and remember my CDs by favorite to least favorite. Now I don't go in exact order, but I have deliberately separated my music in 7 categories, from absolutely favorite to absolutely shit (I haven't gotten rid of 1 cd, no matter how horrible). And like PE, I'm totally old school, in that all my music is in CD form, and not digital download. I can always remember where a certain CD is, based on my "general" categorization.

Hehe, I do this same exact thing. I don't keep the CD cases themselves (I use a couple binder style folders), but with the CDs and jackets in hand, I flip through the folders and try to find that "perfect" spot to put them. I don't really have a black and white formula but it just wouldn't be my CD case if I didn't apply a few simple rules: Towards the front I put the CDs that I most enjoyed or play the most, if I have a repeated artist I try and keep all those together (amazingly if I get a great new CD from a band which I have multiple CDs I will even branch out and bump up the whole lot), I do try and keep genres together but do so in a very loose way, if a couple CDs sound somewhat similar I try keep them all in the same general location, and for the cherry on top I even match album covers. Call me crazy but I could never stand clashing colors or designs :P Maybe I treat my CDs to much like a collection but I always seem to find what I'm looking for and sometimes find a few suprises (which honestly is always a welcomed bonus)

I organize them by album, alphabetical.

Except for my yearly top tens I keep together starting wtih 2000, as well as my top few dozen of all time, which I keep together.

I hate to resurrect an ancient thread here, but at least I did use the search function, right?

I usually just do everything alphabetically, with a separate folder for each artist. No genres, no decades, simple. But lately I've been acquiring more albums of classical music that are not devoted to one composer in particular. That's ok if there's a charismatic performer headlining the disc, like an Isaac Stern or a Glenn Gould.

But sometimes there's both multiple composers AND I don't know who performed on the set. This is especially true with torrents of modern/avant garde classical music, many of which are compiled from various sources. For example, I have one "album" of 4 different tracks of Asian percussion music from 3 different composers, and I have no idea where the recordings are from in the first place. How the heck do I organize that?

That actually reminds me of a related problem in the punk and hardcore world - how do you all organize split releases? I usually find myself either dividing up the album or just having two copies of it.

Anyway, if you're just going to tell me to use iTunes, don't bother. I'm talking old fashioned folders here.

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Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
That actually reminds me of a related problem in the punk and hardcore world - how do you all organize split releases? I usually find myself either dividing up the album or just having two copies of it.

I usually file it with which ever artist is listed first on the spine, unless I've got a ton of stuff by one of the artists and nothing by the one who is listed first. Fer instance, for years I kept my Beat Happening/Screaming Trees split with the Screaming Trees, until I finally tracked down some Beat Happening CDs, then I shifted the split over to the B's.

I don't follow your 'old fashioned folders' comment. Do CDs or albums actually fit in folders?

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Originally posted by Maximum Jack:

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
That actually reminds me of a related problem in the punk and hardcore world - how do you all organize split releases? I usually find myself either dividing up the album or just having two copies of it.

I usually file it with which ever artist is listed first on the spine, unless I've got a ton of stuff by one of the artists and nothing by the one who is listed first. Fer instance, for years I kept my Beat Happening/Screaming Trees split with the Screaming Trees, until I finally tracked down some Beat Happening CDs, then I shifted the split over to the B's.

I don't follow your 'old fashioned folders' comment. Do CDs or albums actually fit in folders?

i'm guessing he's talking about mp3 music stored on a computer and stored in different folders using his Windows Explorer